Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan (1940)

Summary: Characters move in and out of Nick’s Pacific Street Saloon, a bar in San Francisco. As with most bars, some are regulars while others enter only to cause a stir and then quickly depart. Most of the people who find their way into Nick’s looking for work are down on their luck, and though he attempts a tough exterior…he always tries to find a place for them. Besides Nick, the most important character in the bar is Joe—a man who appears to have money for no discernible reason and gives it away willingly.

Thoughts: My initial thought after reading this play was, “Did I miss something?” Having read a number of these plays, I’ve developed an affinity for the slice of life, one-setting formula that has been so rewarded over the years. However, I simply just didn’t find this one as compelling of some that surround it. I appreciated the element of magical realism (Kit Carson is a character in the play)…but other than that I was left wondering, “Why this one?”